


Conduit

by paintstroke



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Astral Plane, Connections, Dreams, Feels, Happy Ending, Insomnia, Love, M/M, Magical Energy, Mixed Messages, Porn with Feelings, Post Season 2 Finale, RST, Smut, cameo: Allura, cameo: Haggar, canon-divergent, get Shiro back, handjobs, interpretation error, let Shiro rest, price of victory, protective Black Lion
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-22
Updated: 2017-07-22
Packaged: 2018-12-05 11:57:04
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,390
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11577606
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/paintstroke/pseuds/paintstroke
Summary: With a shock Keith realized he must have actually drifted asleep. The soft scrape of a boot against a hard surface whispered through the cockpit.  Someone was in the Lion with him. He shouldn’t be caught here. He shouldn’t let on that he was evenconsideringanything to do with Black, not when he protested so vehemently that they needed to get Shiro back at the expense of everything else.  Immediately, guilt flooded through him, burning his ears.His hand slipped back to the handle of his blade, the only movement he allowed himself to make; faking sleep so that he could assess the situation. The footsteps were coming closer, but he didn’t hear a sense of threat in the pace.  Keith turned his head restlessly, not particularly wanting to be found like this, so obviously broken by the recent events. He needed to keep it together for the team. He let his eyes slit open slightly, a faint lilac glow fading from the edges of his vision. There was something familiar in the cadence of the steps, something that set Keith’s heavy heart racing.“Shiro?”





	Conduit

The castle had never felt so large, or so empty. 

Keith would have been fine just sitting in the vast dining hall alone, long after the others had faded out, onto whatever their evenings held. Keith just knew he didn’t want to go wander the training hall. He didn’t want to see the inside of his room. He didn’t want to move. 

But tonight, Allura lingered with him. With a painful realization, he wondered if that was what she’d done with Shiro. He didn’t want to replace Shiro. _No one could replace Shiro._

“As Paladins, we’re all tied to you, right?” Keith asked, as if the question might have a different answer if he asked in a slightly different way. As if the Altean hadn’t thought about it carefully the last few times they’d gone through these motions. 

“Not… exactly…” Allura answered, looking almost as tired as Keith felt. “It’s the Lions themselves that I have a link to. I can sense a bit of energy from lifeforms but not in the same way.”

Keith nodded, not really expecting anything more. They’d already determined that Allura couldn’t track Shiro down. He stared down at the table, sending his knife into another balanced spin. It hadn’t been too long since all he got from Allura was frosty silence. Some cruel part of his mind wanted to push at that painful boundary again, to see how much she’ll tell him. She and Coran would keep things from them, he was certain of it.

Allura sighed, reaching out with a finger to press on the hilt of the knife, bringing its spin to a stop. 

Keith bristled. 

She absently set the knife in motion again. “I can feel Black growing stronger, but she’s still injured, in some way.”

Keith gave a small, bitter smile. Nothing held humor for him these days. Shiro would have had some sort of dark joke about the injuries Zarkon inflicted. Keith’s brain definitely didn’t work like that though. “Yeah…” The injuries to the Lion were obvious. Black hadn’t moved from its fetal position, looking for all the world like a sleeping, overgrown kitten. Keith wasn’t convinced that the Black Lion would wake up without Shiro being found, but he had no reason to not believe Allura. 

He paused. He didn’t really want to know, but the question kept itching at him. His stomach lurched and he let the silence sit between them for a little as he gathered his courage. 

“Can the druids kill without leaving a body behind?” Keith finally asked in a hollow voice. He slouched over himself as if he could defend against the answer

“Not that I know of… but…” Allura stared at the table too, joining Keith in twisted contemplation. 

All of their knowledge was painfully out of date.

Zarkon’s defeat felt so hollow.

* * *

Nights were the worst. 

Keith staggered forward through the empty corridors, rubbing a hand over his face as he tried to clear the sleep from his mind. His brain was filled with cobwebs and fog, but maybe that’s just what happened when you become a ghost of yourself. He definitely didn’t feel human - or even Galra - anymore.

His wanders took him to the bay of the Black Lion before he made a conscious choice to go there. Honestly, he’d be content just walking the entire night. One foot in front of the other. It had a lovely, if false, sense of purpose. As if the one motion might translate to another, less literal way to move forward. 

It was sometimes still unnerving to look up and see the giant, sentient machines. 

Uncertainly, his thoughts flickered back to Red, sitting quiet and regal in a far away corner of the castle, but while she was still there in his mind, he didn’t feel any visceral pull from the touch of her mind. Not that that was unusual, she often kept to herself…. But… 

A bitter feeling sunk through his stomach. Keith walked towards the largest of the lions. It had been days since Black picked herself up from her fetal curl. She was still laying down but evidently healing from the damage. He still felt foggy as he reached out to touch Black. 

“Hey kitty,” he whispered, still unsure of what he was doing. 

He jerked back as Black’s internal mechanisms actually rumbled to life.

A part of him viciously hated the sound. Black leaned her head forward, opening her lower jaw to the ground. He looked over his shoulder, trying to picture the direction where Red might be. Although it was clearly an invitation, he couldn’t stem a guilty feeling. There was no sense of emotion or life coming from Red at the moment though, no sense that the agile lion was present in his mind.

He took a few exhausted steps forward, making his way up to the Black Lion’s control room. Here, the silence still seemed to press around him, leaving him with too many painful memories of Shiro encouraging him to do this exact thing; to take his place. The last place Shiro had been. Keith reaches out to touch the back of the chair. 

It was a stupid idea but he still trailed his fingers along the back of the chair. It was something he couldn’t have done with the other paladins there the last time they’d fought their way into the unconscious Black Lion to discover Shiro missing. As he expected, the chair was cool. When he leaned his head closer, the room just smelled of the same dry nothingness as most of the Castle. 

Keith fought against the crushing disappointment. He couldn’t help but feel like there should be something more. Some sort of presence, at least, or an energy, some sort of trail or clue. Even some sign that Shiro had really been there to begin with... He sighed and turned away. 

Black had taken him in. What did that mean? 

“What do you want me to do?” Keith asked quietly, only the rawness in his voice betraying how upset he was.

Nothing answered him. He sighed. 

Experimentally, he ran a hand over the control panel. Where the gesture would have caused the panels of Red to explode into life beneath his hand, Black remained dark and quiet. A quick burst of relief twisted his stomach. 

“I know, girl,” Keith mumbled. His lips quirked up, forming a small twisted smile. At least _Black_ knew that he wasn’t going to replace Shiro. “We’ll get him back.”

The lack of connection with Black vindicated his insistence that they’d find Shiro again. Keith felt his restlessness subside. Some of the weight had fallen from his shoulders when he realized that the Lion wasn’t ready to bond with him as her Paladin. Without that guilty tension though, not much was keeping him going. It was so hard to keep any sort of energy up when he couldn’t sleep, when depression threatened to strangle any shred of enthusiasm he attempted to cling to. 

Maybe here, though. Maybe that was why his wandering brought him here, why Black let him enter. Maybe they could both be here for each other, in a quiet, simple way. Neither of them would give up on Shiro. 

His traitorous mind added in, _yet._ He rebelled violently against that thought, trying to strike it from existence. 

Keith staggered back towards the emergency supplies, taking out a few of the blankets. He spread them on the floor and pressed his back against the empty foot of the command chair. He let his head fall backward and he stared up through the viewport at the blank bay walls, feeling the familiar nothingness of his insomnia. He rested his head against the seat and let his weary eyes fall closed. 

He sat that way for ages, letting the faux night of the ship stretch around him.

\---

With a shock he realized he must have actually drifted asleep. The soft scrape of a boot against a hard surface whispered through the cockpit. 

Someone was in the Lion with him. 

He shouldn’t be caught here. He shouldn’t let on that he was even considering anything to do with Black, not when he protested so vehemently that they needed to get Shiro back at the expense of everything else. Immediately, guilt flooded through him, burning his ears.

Uneasiness wasn’t too far behind. If Galra had invaded the Castle once before… 

His hand slipped back to the handle of his blade, the only movement he allowed himself to make; faking sleep so that he could assess the situation. The footsteps were coming closer, but he didn’t hear a sense of threat in the pace. Keith turned his head restlessly, not particularly wanting to be found like this, so obviously broken by the recent events. He needed to keep it together for the team. He let his eyes slit open slightly, a faint lilac glow fading from the edges of his vision. There was something familiar in the cadence of the steps, something that set Keith’s heavy heart racing. 

“Shiro?” Keith’s voice was thick with sleep and ragged with the irresistible splinters of hope. He was dreaming. He had to be dreaming. 

“Keith?” 

His name. Shiro’s voice. Is that why Black had let him in here? Because she knew she was calling Shiro back? 

Before he could stop it a pained cry launched from Keith’s throat, and he was stumbling up, suddenly all elbows and knees as his tired body refused to cooperate, nearly tripping over himself in delirium. The blanket fell away, forgotten at the foot of the chair. 

Backlit from the Castle’s running lights was the broad silhouette he’d been aching to see again.

“You’re... here?” Shiro sounded disoriented. Keith watched him take in the surroundings, felt the assessment that Shiro was making of the Lion, of him. 

He couldn’t think of a coherent answer. “Shiro...” Keith was shaking when he reached out. Not just his hand, but his whole _body_ was wracked with tremors. He needed desperately to confirm this vision. Despite the way his heart threatened to break from his chest, he refused to truly believe it… until he felt Shiro solid beneath his quivering fingers. 

Shiro looked down at the hand resting on his chest. His expression melted from confusion to tenderness, features gone soft and relaxed as he just let Keith touch him for a moment. 

Keith ran his unsteady hand along the pale armour in wonder. “It's you…” he breathed, eyes not stopping their movements, travelling over Shiro’s scarred features and familiar form. Shiro pushed against his hand as he took a small step closer, his own hands raising to touch Keith in turn. Keith shivered again when Shiro’s dark glove brushes over his cheek, pressing himself cat-like into the unexpected caress. “Ta-takashi…” he whispered, watching the smile spread slowly across Shiro’s face at the more intimate name. 

Keith’s vision swam. He refused to cry. “How...?” he asked, not quietly enough to hide the way his voice broke over the small question.

Shiro shook his head slightly, looking just as confused. No answer was forthcoming. Keith shuddered at Shiro's gentle touch and managed to hold back for another moment before he’s launching himself forward in a desperate embrace, burying his face in the cool armor to hide the tears of relief that threaten to spill over his lower lashes. 

There’s a very distant part of his brain that tell Keith he should hit the comm-link. He should tell the other Paladins that Shiro has reappeared, just as suddenly as he left. They were still trapped in the nightmare. Freeing them from that horrible reality would be the proper thing to do. But he’s selfish. He’s always been selfish. He needs Shiro here for himself right now. He can tell the others… after… 

Because right now there’s so much he should say. Everything that he never said, not before Kerberos, not before that final battle, rattled through his brain. He needed Shiro to know. How long would they manage to stay together this time? 

His mouth was dry and he's pretty sure his heart had lodged itself into his throat but when he looks up, the way that Shiro stared back at him, the way that Shiro _also_ hadn't let go was enough encouragement. 

“Takashi…” Keith’s voice came out more rough than soft. There were so many things he could say. Things that could show how he felt but let him stay ambiguous in it, always another option, another out. 

_I missed you._

_Don't leave again._

_You fucking asshole, stop doing this._

“I love you” Keith choked out instead, not sure if it was self sabotage at this point or just the inevitable. He couldn’t help it. He was so overwhelmed, so terrified he’d never get the chance to say it. 

Shiro’s fingers were gentle on his jawline, tilting Keith’s head back with quiet purpose. Grey eyes met his own and they were so unbelievably tender... “Keith…” 

For a moment Keith’s eyes searched Shiro’s face through the blur of unshed tears, not caring what Shiro’s reaction was. He’d never regret it. Not after this long. 

But then Shiro was moving in to kiss him. It felt like the bottom dropped out from Keith’s reality, sending his heart and stomach into free fall. It was so much more than Keith had even let himself hope for. 

The first touch of their lips was so hesitant, soft and tentative. Keith held his breath, dizzy with the resolution. Shiro’s lips were gentle, too gentle, after dreaming about this for so long Keith couldn’t hold back, couldn’t restrain himself to just soft presses of skin on skin.

He licked teasingly along the edge of Shiro’s upper lip, and was rewarded with the most delicious moan he’d ever heard. Encouraged, he pushed upwards onto his tiptoes, hand running along the back of Shiro’s head, keeping him close as Keith’s tongue darted quick and demanding into Shiro’s mouth. The warmth kindled sparks everywhere; his veins were electric. His world narrowed to just this moment. 

Keith held Shiro tighter, fingers on his other hand scrabbling haphazardly down over Shiro’s pale vambrace, until he reached the softer material of the undersuit, his fingers digging in into it like vices, as if he gripped hard enough he could keep Shiro here this time. 

Shiro panted, breaking the frantic pace of the kiss as his hands tightening around Keith’s back.

“Keith - I need you.”

Keith heard himself make another embarrassing sound at that and pulled away, just enough so that he could look up into Shiro’s face. Indigo eyes meet grey ones. He needed Shiro too. The words stuck in his throat though, and he answered like Shiro did before, with another desperate kiss.

The noise Shiro made in response was positively guttural, and Keith chased after it, wanting to discover just how many other noises he could pull from Shiro’s throat. He had wanted this for far too long. 

He whimpered when Shiro’s hands left until he realizes that Shiro’s unfastening his armor. Keith nipped Shiro’s lip lightly, dragging his teeth along the velvety skin and trying to keep him close even as he starts to frantically release his own armor. Pieces crash to the floor until they’re left in dark bodysuits. Forced away by the distance necessary for Shiro to remove his cuirass, Keith panted, feeling his face flush. He was torn between wanting to savor the moment and wanting everything, now, wanting to dive forward at a million miles an hour. 

Shiro made the choice for them, arms stroking down Keith’s back before cupping underneath his bum. Keith wrapped his own arms around Shiro’s shoulders, laughing slightly as Shiro actually _picked him up._

Shiro kissed Keith’s neck, and Keith gasped and leaned his head back, giving Shiro all the space he could want to nuzzle at his sensitive skin there. Shiro’s mouth was decadent, soft and hot and wet, the brief brushes of teeth teasing Keith beyond all measure. Keith squirmed in Shiro’s arms, needing to get closer, needing everything.

“Keith,” Shiro hummed into his neck. “Keith….” 

Keith’s brain broke. He whined a little, grinding forward in furtive little movements. Shiro let out a needy breath, sitting down in the chair and pulling Keith into his lap. Chest to chest, Keith jammed his knees underneath the chair arms and continued his movements, grinding with abandon over Shiro’s lap. “Please…” Keith choked out, not sure what he’s asking for besides for this to not stop. He needed this. He needed something to feel alive again. He needed Shiro. 

Shiro found a spot at the junction of his neck and shoulders that made Keith’s motions erratic. Keith can feel his damned smile the moment before his lips sealed over that spot, sucking heat and an edge of pain making the pleasure so much sweeter. His whimpers filled the command area. 

Shiro’s hands continued, like Keith had imagined a million times, slowly dragging the zipper-like fastening down the back of the bodysuit. Keith’s squirming continued as his back was exposed to the cooler air, the sensations of warm fingers, cool metal, and Shiro’s damned mouth driving him close to an edge he wasn’t ready to reach just yet. He panted for breath, becoming undone and wanton, vaguely remembering wanting to seduce Shiro, not entirely sure when that plan had been reversed. He helped Shiro peel the undersuit off of his chest, his arms, reaches for Shiro’s own fastening without really a plan of how he can get it off Shiro when Shiro is sitting trapped between Keith’s own body and the chair. 

He doesn't get that far before Shiro’s hands are catching his wrists. Shiro mumbles into his neck, uncrossing his own arms and urging Keith to spin around with an iron grip. Keith cautiously repositions himself, ending up straddling Shiro and facing the viewscreen. Shiro’s thighs keep his own apart, and Shiro manages to capture both of Keith’s wrists in one hand, leaving the other free to push the bodysuit down past Keith’s waist. Keith attempted to roll his hips, trying to help. 

Keith keened when the hand stopped trying to push at the material and instead wraps warmly hand around his shaft. His hips stuttered forward, pressing into Shiro’s palm. Shiro’s grip on his arms is unbreakable, holding him tightly in place. “I need you Keith,” Shiro repeated as he starts to stroke.

Keith saw stars. There wasn’t enough oxygen in the world to fight off the gilt-edged dizziness. He was lost to the pleasure of feeling Shiro’s hand on him. He could arch a little, and he did, the tension in his body driving the coils of pleasure deeper, quicker. His own fingers clenched into the arm that’s holding his hands close to his chest, as Shiro kept him steady. His physical anchor, even as his mind soared with the pleasure.

“Let me…” Keith manages to choke out part of an idea, needing to reciprocate in some way. Not sure if he can make sense with the way Shiro’s fingers dance in unexpected patterns and motions. “You?” he starts again, and he was pretty sure he could feel Shiro smile as a gentle kiss was pressed into the back of his head. The hum he got in reply could have meant nothing or everything. 

Keith moaned, thrusting up to meet Shiro’s strokes. He’d wanted this for so long –he knew he wasn’t going to be able to hold on much longer. Everything felt amazing; overwhelming. “Shiro…” Keith whispered, thrusting forward, nearly inarticulate. 

“Come for me,” Shiro crooned, somewhere near his ear, and then that delicious mouth was suckling at his earlobe.

“Yeah…” Keith panted, not sure that he could stop it at this point. 

“Come for me, Keith,” Shiro repeated.

Keith wanted to see Shiro. Wanted Shiro to see him. He tried to twist in Shiro’s arms, but the other Paladin held him in place, and it was too much, it was all too much. The strokes pushed him towards the inevitable and he gave a strangled, wordless cry as he obeyed, coming hard.

His eyes shut tight and eyebrows knotted together as he felt his release hit his chest, running down his panting body. Lights danced at the edge of his vision but continued to flicker, growing thicker, more tangled.

He felt like reality disintegrated around him with the force of the orgasmic aftershocks, and he gave a full body jerk, pressing backwards into the chair…

Chair.

Not… Shiro. 

Unsettled, his eyes snapped open. He was alone in the cockpit. The blanket was pooled at his feet and he was curled alone in the chair. The air was motionless around him, the silence and loneliness all encompassing. 

“Come for me Keith…” he could almost hear the last words of his dream echoing in the empty cockpit. 

Suddenly furious at his subversive dreams, Keith stood. This was the most vivid he’d had the last few weeks. Angry tears blurred the edges of his vision and he stalked forward, throwing a heavy fist at one of the dead control panels in betrayed frustration. 

Slowly, he started the tedious process of putting his armour back on. A few minutes later, he left the Black Lion’s command area with a stiff, uncomfortable gait, the doors sliding shut behind him. 

Where his fist had connected, a faint purple glow sparked to life, swirling around the command panel sigils before winking out of existence.

* * *

Keith spent the rest of the morning in his bunk, staring at the ceiling, wondering if he’d ever be able to sleep again without these dreams taunting him. 

The comm crackled to life, and he looked over to the small teal speaker a moment before Allura’s voice knifed through the small room.

“Keith…” she breathed. “Get down here –immediately!” The voice channel went dead a dark schematic of the Black Lion’s bay appeared, replacing the teal glow. Keith sat still for a few painful heartbeats and Keith felt that familiar sense of guilt arising. He couldn’t help his dreams though… 

He stopped briefly to pull on his armor over a clean bodysuit. If he was going to get in trouble, he might as well be fully dressed.

* * *

Keith skidded to a stop beside Allura. His lips slowly fell apart. The Black Lion was sitting up in front of them, yellow eyes blazing, fully awake. 

Her teal wings, so recently revealed, stretched out and above her in a regal halo. 

In shock, Keith could only stare up at the majestic creature. “What…?” 

Allura looked to him, uncertainly. “The security tapes put you here last night… what did you do?” she asked in a whisper. “Did you successfully bond with her?”

Still in shock, Keith shook his head slowly. “No… but she did let me in….” he said slowly. He bit his lip. He felt like he needed to give Allura some sort of explanation. “I feel like Shiro is closer when I’m with her…” 

He felt it the moment the luminescent eyes settled on him. The weight of the Lion’s attention was a powerful thing. And then, suddenly, Red was there in his mind, he felt it like a sinuous weight winding around him. Like a housecat scent-marking him, comforting him. The rough, affectionate scrape of a metaphysical tongue against his mind. 

Keith’s eyes narrowed, confused at Red’s apparent push forward. 

And then he staggered. 

There was a rush, similar to the way he felt Red at the back of his mind but this was…

This was immense. If Red was a flash, a spark, this was an entire storm system. It felt almost limitless, this power rising around him, carrying him along with it. 

“Black…” he whispered, as that sentience whispered and rumbled around him like thunder. 

He wondered how Shiro withstood it. 

In the roar of power was that same sort of genuine affection glimmered, and slowly, delicately, the storm tamed itself, until he felt the pressure of the abstraction around his head lessen, enough that he remembered to breathe. The raging storm brushed more gently against his mind. It drew him in. He stepped forward automatically, unable to resist. Not when one of the all-encompassing ideas was so close to his heart. 

So familiar.

Keith knew, knew with the certainty of the ancient intelligence, that for this, he could be a conduit to focus its energy.

The Black Lion was ready to reclaim Shiro.

* * *

Keith stroked his armoured hand over Black’s controls.

“That’s it, Black,” Keith crooned, pulled back on the levers. “Take me to him, girl.”

From the side viewports he could just barely catch sight of those elegant teal wings spreading to the sides. Ahead stretched only space, and somewhere behind him the Castle disappeared.

The overlap of the lions’ energy was reassuring. Red was in the background still, curled around his mind possessively. He was half surprised that she wasn’t flying out alongside him and Black. There was still the pervasive sense that only Black could take him where he needed to be. 

The Lion rumbled around him, feeling all-encompassing and calm, the storm of her power contained for now. Keith was grateful for that presence, that hope that at least one of them knew what was happening. Keith felt the massive pool of energy shift upwards from beneath him; taking control from his piloting. It was fluid, like a rising flood, and he felt like even if he wanted to resist he’d be powerless. He let her, relaxing and opening his mind. Patience. Focus. 

It wasn’t an unexpected request when she asked him to picture Shiro. Keith could call up the image of his friend as easily as breathing. The way Shiro looked when he smiled or laughed. The sense of security and control he worked so hard to project. The way he inspired everyone on the team. His terrible sense of dark humor. And underneath it all, Keith’s love and respect bled through.

The Lion purred.

Keith could feel the energy gathering around him. “That’s it,” he breathed, his excitement growing as the power welled up. “Let’s get Shiro back…”

And the stars lurched around him as the Lion _shifted_. In a moment, the cockpit dropped away entirely, flashing out of existence, and Keith stumbled forward, not expecting his surroundings to change so drastically. Stars and nebulae spun in lazy circles, familiar constellations dotted in. 

It was breathtaking. 

Amazing.

But the stunning backdrop was nothing compared to _who_ he saw. In a cluster of stars-made-solid, cocooned in wings of space and sky and time, Shiro was there. 

Keith closed the gap between them. His heart pounded against his ribcage, and he lifted a hand up, half-meaning to touch Shiro’s face. 

Grey eyes opened slowly. 

“You came…” Shiro said with a smile. 

He looked so peaceful. So confident. Like this was exactly what he had expected. Like he’d been waiting for this. 

Keith choked back tears. “Of course.” 

He reached out, hesitantly, offering a hand to help Shiro out of the nest of stars and space curled around him. He didn’t really know how any of this astral stuff worked but the stars and clouds of space seemed to shimmer out and away as Shiro moved. 

When Shiro’s fingers touched Keith’s own it was too much. The tears he’d been unable to shed while Shiro was gone spilled over his eyelashes, embarrassing him as he pulled Shiro those few steps forward. With a quiet intensity, Shiro was the one to refuse to let go of his hand, drawing their entwined hands close to his chest, wrapping his other arm around Keith in a fierce hug. 

Keith bit back an actual sob. “You can’t keep doing this,” Keith hissed, the words hiccuping over his sense of relief. He tried to latch onto some sense of anger to destroy the other emotions, the ones he couldn’t control. He couldn’t though. He was too overwhelmed with happiness. 

Shiro laughed. He seemed lighter here, more free. “I never mean to,” he whispered back. 

Keith had to bite into his lip, take a few breathes in the familiar embrace. “Let’s go home,” he whispered back when he was able to speak again. 

Keith could feel the energy of the Lion rising again, like lightning about to strike nearby. The small hairs on his arms were raising, the skin at the base of his neck crawling with the power gathering around them. 

A sense of elasticity spread tension through the star-space, like a band pulled too tight; ready to snap. Pale violet light rose and started to drown out the stars Shiro had called to his side in the astral plane. 

Shiro pulled back slightly from their hug, his hand trailing over Keith’s back to clasp at his shoulder. Those dark eyes searched Keith’s face, and he looked like he wanted to say something, here in the safety of the astral cocoon Black had left him in. Keith’s heart leapt into his throat.

It was always too late. 

With a double-vision overlay, Keith started to see the lines of the Lion’s interior again. He tightened his grip on Shiro, even as he started to see lilac energy twisting to a sickly magenta, tendrils spiraling out to cut jagged lines over Shiro’s chest. Shiro’s eyes widened in shock. 

“No!” Keith shouted, terror bleeding into his mind. 

The colour of the energy was too much like their last battle with Zarkon, like the moment had been frozen in time.

Waiting for Shiro to return. 

The sense of elasticity snapped.

Recoil sent Keith heavily back into the command seat. His arms were suddenly around nothing. 

Black’s furious roar echoed around him and he joined her in a scream of pure rage. 

“Not this time!”

He _reached_ out to the storm of Black energy. Their combined sense of purpose melded their intentions, and that power, that immense power was suddenly around and behind him. Reality spun as he launched himself forward, diving back towards Shiro, following the void left by the snapped connection.

* * *

Haggar felt a pull. She slowly got up, making her way to the medical bay, following the sense of _wrongness_ that she can taste in the air. It’s magic. Her magic. But it had a stale flavour to it. 

Zarkon had been lying there, unresponsive, for quintants. She narrowed her eyes. Now, here, his arms were rigidly raised, and gentle swirls of power were slowly condensing between them. Slowly taking form. A form pulled from the air itself. “Well, well…” Haggar rasped. “Little delayed, were you?”

The power was partially dragged free from astral space-time. The form grew more solid, gaining line and weight –gaining features she recognized very, very well. 

“Why hello again, Champion,” Hagger taunted, revelling in the look of terror on the gladiator’s face as he started struggling, trying to edge away from her without the solidity he needed to truly interact with this world again. 

She lifted her hands, starting to charge the old threads of magic, refreshing the pull that had ripped Zarkon free from his dying mechanical shell and had nearly trapped the Champion as well. 

With a grimace from the effort, she launched the spell to pull her Champion back to his rightful place at her feet.

Her crackling energy slammed against a dark force field. 

Hagger frowned, as magenta and vivid lilac forces through dark energy around the room. They were balanced, somehow. But without a pilot, the Black Lion Zarkon was so obsessed with shouldn’t have been able to channel the ancient energy…

Her frown deepened into a true scowl and she dug into her reserves.

Slowly, slowly, she tangled her magic around the Champion, anchoring his faded form.

The purple energy shielding the Champion roiled angrily, but it wouldn’t be enough. A corner of Haggar’s lip curled up in contempt. Of course the Lion couldn’t stand against her. The Emperor had been foolish to put his priorities with that creature’s power. 

But her coils… slipped.

Against the dark cloud, violent red lines flashed, angry and quick, slicing at the druidic tethers. Hagger reformed her energy lines as they were cut through.

With a noise of disgust, Hagger lashed out again. 

This time it wasn’t just red energy that joined the battle. 

Blues. 

Golds. 

Greens. 

Each new hue added another layer of protection, freeing the form of the Champion from the druid’s tethers. It was a losing battle. 

Zarkon’s arms fell limply to his sides, and suddenly, the alien energies winked out of existence, slipping through the last of her chains. 

Haggar swore, an ancient curse on her lips. She narrowed her eyes and looked down at the emperor’s still form. She watched the streams of quintessence leach into his system, the hum and drone of the machinery keeping him alive. 

Well. 

Failures he wasn’t aware of wouldn’t hurt her.

* * *

Shiro’s features went soft, his eyes half-lidded and tender as he looked over at Keith. Keith wanted so badly to move closer. He settled for an answering smile, restraining himself since everyone was still in the lounge. 

It was probably the early hours of the morning, but no one had been willing to let Shiro out of their sight. Hunk and Lance were asleep already on the other couch, and Pidge’s laptop and quiet conversation with Allura and Coran were gentle in the background. Keith and Shiro had partially kept up with the various theories they were trading on space and time and different planes of existence, but had slowly turned their attention to each other as the night blurred on. 

“I never really put much stock in ‘energies’ before, you know?” Shiro commented. He was sprawled out on the couch, taking up as much space as he could. 

From his seat on the floor, Keith quirked a half-smile and leaned his head back, butting it lightly into Shiro’s calf to catch his attention. “I know.” That was a fact he accepted easily. Keith had taken on a bit of a reputation from his time in the desert, but he’d been right in the end. Not that he particularly cared what others thought, anyway. 

“I hoped that if I reached out… you might still be sensitive to that type of thing...” Shiro’s voice had dropped into something just above a whisper.

Immediately, his mind flashed to the weeks of vivid dreams. Keith nearly choked on air.  
“You tried to contact me?” Keith slowly pushed himself up and back, settling onto the couch. Shiro swung his legs away to sit up side by side with Keith, leaning in so they could talk with as much privacy as they could get without leaving and attracting a whole lot more attention.

“Well… yeah.” Shiro was embarrassed by that. Well, by something, at least. Keith could tell by the way that his hand ran through his hair, hiding his face. 

Keith tilted his head to the side, trying to see the expression masked by Shiro’s hand. “What… what were you trying to say?” He gently leaned into Shiro’s side, a friendly nudge. 

Shiro shrugged. “I don’t know exactly, words were hard to…” he made an aborted gesture. Words were apparently _still_ hard. “I guess just trying to let you know that I needed you to take Black and try to come for me. That I was still there, just trapped on the astral plane.”

Keith made a strangled sound, then followed it up with a quick nod. He tried to convince his mouth to form words. He tried frantically to remember the phrasing in the most vivid of his dream. Yeah. Well. He’d definitely corrupted Shiro’s message with his own feelings. 

“I… might have sensed something like that…” Keith admitted, ears burning red with memories. 

Shiro was watching him, seemingly curious now. 

Keith wished he could lie more convincingly. 

“I knew that you had been the one to feel the Blue Lion in the desert... “ Shiro seemed driven to explain further. “I thought you were my best chance?” Keith nodded, he had sort of expected Shiro to explain things away like that after all. But then Shiro continued, voice going even softer, “I mean… time was weird out there. I thought about you…. A lot.”

He looked around the room, but no one was paying them too much attention. Keith sighed. “I’d dream about you.” Keith admitted, the words muffled since he was speaking into his palms, letting his fingers and shaggy fringe cover his eyes so he didn’t have to look at Shiro. “It _definitely_ wasn’t the same as the pull of the Blue Lion’s energy. And I guess I didn’t know if dreaming about you was just… that I missed you… and wanted so badly for you to reappear.”

He peaked through his fingers, not sure if Shiro would catch the subtext. 

Shiro was staring straight ahead for a moment, and Keith felt his heart contract with everything they’d been through together. Shiro slowly closed his eyes, leaning back into Keith slightly. Keith may have stopped breathing when he felt Shiro’s arm slide across his shoulders. 

Keith swallowed, letting his hands drop from his face. He turned into Shiro, touching their foreheads together gently. 

This was real. 

This meant so much more. 

“ I wouldn’t mind sleeping in a real bed tonight…” Shiro whispered. 

Keith had been prepared to stay here, in the lounge room. But, if Shiro was willing to disappear with him… well. Keith looked over to where Lance and Hunk are passed out on the other couch. It took him a few tries to answer Shiro, and even then, nothing more than just a simple, “Yeah,” made it past his tight throat. 

He deliberately laced his fingers through Shiro’s. 

“Let’s go,” he whispered. It’s a moment or two before either of them tries to get up. 

They move slowly as they make their way from the lounge room, trying not to attract too much attention as they picked their way carefully across the floor. Keith knew that neither of them were strangers to moving stealthily, but it got complicated with the way he couldn’t keep his eyes from sliding back to Shiro. From looking at their linked hands. The way he caught Shiro doing the same brought confidence to his smile. 

They were finally done with dancing around this. 

They could finally move forward.

_Together._

**Author's Note:**

> * * *
> 
> ...and they cuddled all night?
> 
> This was meant to be a long adventure-y fic but then I procrastinated and now the teasers/trailers for S3 gave me too many feels to continue to write a 'get Shiro back' adventure, but I thought I'd sculpt a few scenes into a short fic anyway. Hope you enjoyed!


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